


Like a Phoenix, Like a Squirrel

by C-chan (1001paperboxes)



Category: The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27263269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/pseuds/C-chan
Summary: On visiting the garden in their first autumn together, and preparing it for winter and the year to come
Relationships: Colin Craven & Mary Lennox & Dickon Sowerby
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18
Collections: Shipoween 2020 - The Halloween Ship Exchange!





	Like a Phoenix, Like a Squirrel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bewareofthebaobabs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewareofthebaobabs/gifts).



The leaves were red and gold, bathing the tree's branches and most of the garden's pathways in bright colour. Ben Witherstaff had lent them rakes, and Mary, Dickon, and Colin were on a mission to clear up what they could and gather the leaves into piles and large, wooden baskets, to be made into compost and insulation for the next year. Mary was taking to it quite naturally, but for Colin it was a touch more difficult, his body still not used to bending in quite the way needed to get the rake to move the leaves in any sort of efficient manner. Still, he was doing a serviceable job, especially under Dickon's directions, and soon enough, the three had completed their task, and settled in for a picnic lunch of fresh bread, cheese, and apples.

"It's kind of sad, isn't it?" Colin asked, as he looked around the space. "All the work we put in over the year, and it all just sort of fades away."

"Aye, but that just means that it's preparing for next year," Dickon replied. "The dying’s as much part of the process as the coming back. It needs time to renew. In fact, Ben leaves some plots bare every year so the earth has time to rest. The garden will remember every kindness done, believe you me. And there's plenty we can do to make sure it's more beautiful next year than this."

"I don't think that's possible!" Mary exclaimed. Surely, the garden wasn't as opulent as the ones she'd had back in India, but it had a beauty all its own; one that they had made and cultivated with their own hands, but with still a veneer of wildness, as if fresh out from a storybook's fairyland.

That just made Dickon laugh. "Aye, it's hard to imagine in such a lovely place, I know. But we can collect seeds so that the flowers can bloom again. We can dig up bulbs and replant, so they're healthy and well-cared for. And we can set things up just right so that next spring, there's even more surprises to be found as the snow melts and things start coming up from the ground.”

"We could pretend to be squirrels," Mary supposed. "They like digging up bulbs and such. And hiding them like treasures. I've heard old Ben complaining about them almost as much as the birds in the food gardens."

"Well, that settles it," Colin decided. "Today we shall be squirrels, and tomorrow…"

"Tomorrow I'll see if I can get my hands on some straw, and show thee how to bed down what we can for the winter. And perhaps find things to collect seeds with too."

Yes, there would be much fun to have as they put the garden away for the winter, tending it so it was ready for the next year, covering it so it would be warm, and finding a new beauty when snow covered it all, even as it returned to looking as dead and barren as when Mary had found it mere months before.

But this time, they'd know of the beauty and hard work underneath. And that made all the difference.


End file.
